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Chicago Fire spreads Rout of Revolution moves Chicago into semifinals
CHICAGO (AP) -- Hristo Stoitchkov had two goals and three assists as the Chicago Fire beat the New England Revolution 6-0 on Friday night to advance to the MLS semifinals. Chicago, which won the quarterfinal series six points to three, will face New York-New Jersey in the semifinals. On a rainy night that saw flashes of lightning at Soldier Field, Ante Razov opened the scoring in the fifth minute off an assist from Stoitchkov. Stoitchkov scored in the 14th and 17th minutes, with Razov assisting on both goals. Peter Nowak beat goalkeeper Jeff Causey off a pass from Stoitchkov to give the Fire a 4-0 lead. In the second half, Razov scored his second goal off an assist from Stoitchkov, and Sam George completed the scoring. Zack Thornton had the shut out for Chicago. The Fire's six-goal output ties an MLS playoff record, held by the Los Angeles Galaxy in a 6-1 defeat of the Dallas Burn on Oct. 1, 1998. But the margin of victory is the largest in playoff history. The MetroStars will travel to Soldier Field to play the Fire on Tuesday night to open the next round. The two teams have never met in postseason play. Post-game quotesFire coach Bob Bradley "Our team has a lot of pride. We're pretty honest with each other. We knew after the second game we didn't play well. I'm very proud of tonight's game. I give New England a lot of credit, they played very, very hard in the first two games and made it hard for us. We felt we hadn't played the way we could. But there's another series that starts Tuesday, and we have to get ourselves ready for that." Revolution coach Fernando Clavijo "It was a completely different team from the one we played last. We lost against the better team today. We were determined to win, but they were better prepared. We came here to play, but it was definitely the day for the Chicago Fire." Fire forward Hristo Stoitchkov On tying an MLS record for most goals by a team in a playoff game: "What does that tell you? I think that equals to the fact that Chicago has a very solid team. A great team can score these many goals. We know how to play 'football' in Chicago. Our entire team tonight proved why we're among the best teams in the league. Our great virtue is the counterattack and I think we were able to show that tonight." On facing the NY/NJ MetroStars in the semifinals: "Right now we just need to rest a little, just clear our minds after this feat. It will be a totally different game against the MetroStars. But fortunately we have home-field advantage and, if necessary, we would be coming back to Chicago to play the third game. I think we're clearly the favorites to win this next series." Fire forward Ante Razov: "Tonight's game was good for a lot of reasons: playing at home, it was game three, Chris Armas and Diego Gutierrez were back. We came out and proved a point tonight. There wasn't a lot of talking in the locker-room before the game tonight. There has been all week, but not tonight. Either you do it or go home. That's the way we went about it. We got some goals early and it was kind of a free-for-all after that. To be up 4-0 at the half, that's a good feeling. We just kept going and didn't stop."
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